Divorce drama has makings of Italian opera

A former professor at the College of the Holy Cross, Suzanne Branciforte is a bright, successful author who teaches in Italy and overcame breast cancer five years ago.

What she can't overcome are the remnants of a bitter, 16-year custody battle that has left her exiled in Europe, charged by the FBI with kidnapping, and still paying monthly child support to an ex-husband who hasn't housed their son, now 19, in seven years.

“I thought divorce was legal in the United States,” said Branciforte, in a phone call from her home in Genoa, Italy. “I didn't think marrying the wrong person was a mistake I'd pay for the rest of my life.”

Her ex, Adrian Hernandez, places the blame for this mess squarely on Branciforte. He noted that she has ignored numerous orders from the Worcester Probate Court, twice kept their son in Italy despite legal demands for his return, and was slapped with a 130-day jail sentence she has yet to serve.

“Everything that's happened is because she's pushed it to this point,” said Hernandez, a high school drama teacher who has since remarried and lives with his new family in Milton. “I don't feel bad for her. All I ever wanted was a relationship with my son.”

Divorce and custody battles are never pretty. This one, however, has all the makings of Italian opera — long, agonizing and rife with melodrama, heartache and betrayal.

The case file of Hernandez vs. Branciforte is easily the size of two telephone books and includes judgments from the Massachusetts Appeals Court, the Juvenile Court of Genoa, the Italian Supreme Court and even the Hague Convention. Space does not permit a review of all the motions, sanctions and modifications filed from here to Europe and back. Suffice to say that the subject of the battle, 19-year-old Maximillian Hernandez, is now an adult who lives on his own, and the curtain on this case has yet to close.

The couple wed in 1987 and owned a home on Germain Street in Worcester before divorcing eight years later. Branciforte was granted physical custody, and Hernandez allowed her to take their son to Italy for a year as long as he could visit.

That was essentially the last time the couple agreed on anything. A year later, Hernandez would file a contempt complaint, claiming his ex had refused two visits. He would later be granted temporary custody by a Worcester Probate judge after she refused orders to return from Italy with their son.

Meanwhile, Branciforte sought relief in a juvenile court in Genoa, which declined jurisdiction but allowed Max to stay in Italy. Back in the states, a Worcester judge found her in contempt for refusing to return with Max or to comply with several court orders; physical custody and child support was granted to Hernandez in 1999.

Max was returned to his father in Worcester. Branciforte didn't see her son for five years; Hernandez said she refused to go to Probate Court to set visitation. Over Christmas of 2005, Hernandez relented and allowed the boy to visit his mother in Italy. Once again, Branciforte refused to return him to the states and even briefly fled to France.

In 2006 — despite Branciforte recently claiming that no such warrant exists — the FBI slapped her with an international kidnapping warrant, which remains in effect.

“If she did come back, she'd be arrested,” said FBI spokesman Greg Comcowich.

Not surprisingly, both sides offered radically different accounts. Branciforte maintains that Italy had jurisdiction over the case, despite court records that state otherwise. She said her son always wanted to remain in Italy and that the Italian courts allowed her to keep him.

She claims her ex has used the boy as a pawn for years to shake her down for money. Since 2006, he's received about $104,000 in child support, mostly from royalties on a textbook she authored, even though their child hasn't lived with him since 2005. Worcester Probate Court Judge Susan Ricci ordered the money be taken from the publisher. Branciforte said she's also paid about $242,000 of his legal fees

“Enough is enough,” she said. “My son is going to be 20 in the fall, and I'm still paying child support. My ex-husband has earned more money from my book than I have. Everyone knows this isn't right. It doesn't pass the smell test.”

Hernandez didn't dispute that he still receives monthly payments of $1,150 from his ex, but said he's been forced to hire lawyers in Italy and spend close to $500,000 on legal fees. He called Branciforte a “control freak” and noted that several courts have criticized her behavior, with one American court saying “she was not capable of separating her needs and interests from those of Maximillian.”

“Therein lies the rub, if I may quote the bard,” said Hernandez, a teacher at Boston College High. “She's the source of all these legal problems. She's extremely intelligent, but she's always wanted things her way. Most of us are smart enough to know we can't have everything.”

Today, Maximillian lives with roommates in Italy. He visits his father in Massachusetts and remains in regular contact with both parents. Despite the odds, he seems well-adjusted and happy.

His mother, meanwhile, said she can't return to the states because she faces arrest, and hasn't seen her own mother in Florida in two years. But she's keeping busy, having recently filed a lawsuit in Italy that demands child support from her ex.

When mentioned that the case contains the elements of opera, Hernandez sighed.

“Oh please,” he said. “I really don't like opera. I just want all these legal matters to end.”